The 36-year-old Bryans won their second Roland Garros crown in 2013, 10 years on from their first triumph on the dirt, and were looking for a 16th Grand Slam championship to inch them closer to the target of 100 team titles. They are currently on 98 trophies, winning most recently at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters.

In their first tour-level outing together, Croatia’s Draganja and Mergea of Romania have enjoyed a dream run through to the semi-finals. They ended the 11-match winning streak of Nestor and Zimonjic, who came into Roland Garros after back-to-back titles at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 clay-court tournaments in Madrid and Rome.

Nestor and Zimonjic were looking to win Roland Garros for the second time, after victory four years ago (d. Dlouhy/Paes). The Canadian/Serbian duo reformed at the start of 2014 and have won three titles this season.